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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Lately, every time I saw the
“Fair and Square” ads for J. C. Penney's logo, there was a
nagging in the back of my mind. Finally the other day, the nagging
came to full awareness. “Fair and Square” finally equated in my
mind to the “Golden Rule Store” of my mother's childhood.

Several years ago, while I
was writing a little book about all of the homes where my mother's
family lived, my mother spent hours telling me stories of her
childhood. One of the phrases that kept coming up was: “We went to
the Golden Rule.” At first the comments had little meaning, but
upon questioning her about what and where was the Golden Rule, it
became clear that it was some sort of store. Over the course of our discussions, it became obvious that her memories around this Golden
Rule store were more important than I had imagined.

My grandparents, Frank and
Agnes Laura Sigford nee Keyes never had much money, but my mother
told with a childhood's delight about how she and her little sister
Gail would go to the Golden Rule and sometimes they would even get a
“penny” sack of candy as a treat. As she talked about those
times, it was as if all good things came from the Golden Rule, a new
dress, tablet, pencil, pair of shoes, and of course, the
little sack of candy.

I could never get a clear
answer from my mother as to where the Golden Rule was located, just a
vague answer that indicated that the store was located on Main Street
in Klamath Falls. So, I “goggled” Golden Rule Store as well as
Golden Rule store in Klamath Falls; the following information
brought into focus the Golden Rule store that my mother knew:

In 1902, 27 year old James
Cash Penny (Cash was a family name) started the Golden Rule Store in
Kemmerer, Wyoming. He had two revolutionary ideas for his new store
– his goods were cash only for a fixed price (no haggling) and do unto other as you would have them do unto you.
Later he would describe that first day of business in these words:

When we locked up at midnight and went upstairs to our attic room
after the first day's business to figure out how we stood, there was
wasn't a great deal of paper or for that matter silver dollars, but
there was an astonishing – to us – wealth in pennies, nickels,
dimes, quarters, and half-dollars. Our first day's sales amounted
actually to only $33.41 shy of the $500 savings we had put with the
note for $1500 to pay for the partnership.

J. C. Penny working in the RockSprings Penny's store, about 1906
from The Antiplanner's J.C. Penney, Entrepenuer, 11/19/2008

During the next decade more Golden Rule stores were opened, and in
1913 the decision was made to change the name to the J.C. Penny
Company. In my mother's home town of Klamath Falls, Oregon ,a Golden
Rule store was opened in 1910 – nine years before my mother was
born. According to the April 1, 1930 edition of the Klamath
Falls Evening Herald, the
“Golden Rule store marks 20 years.” By 1937, evidently the
changes in the J.C. Penny Company finally reached Klamath Falls, as noted in
the November 8th
special edition of the Klamath Falls paper: “J. C. Penny to open
in former Golden Rule store at 803 Main Street.”

Now, in 2012, with J. C. Penny's
logo of “Fair and Square” harkening back to it's roots of the
Golden Rule, I hope that many a small child of 2012 may find the
same sense of wonderment in their stores as Ruth Sigford found in the
Golden Rule of the 1920s.

12 comments:

Another question answered by a prompt to do a bit of digging :-) Don't you just love the internet? And well done, JCP on his enterprising skills, without which little girls would have been without pencils, tablet and candy :-)

What an interesting post, Joan and one which shows clearly we need to pay attention to those mental niggles. I've never heard of the stores by this name but we had a Penny's (may even have been called JC Penny's in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane. it was one of the first stores I shopped alone in, when I was a schoolgirl. I remember buying a present for my Mother there for Mother's Day in the late 50s.

It's amazing to me how such a "little childhood memory" can make us recall similar things in our past. The first shopping alone is a big thing for any little girl, so Penny's in Brisbane must have been a safe place for a child --- good old Golden Rule.

I love stories about JC. He married into one of my mother's lines. It was his first wife, who worked beside him in the first store at Kemmerer, Lincoln County, Wyoming. I have the very same photo in my data base as part of the stories about JC and Berta.

Carol, how interesting! And a small world. I dinna have any idea that JC married into your family. His was certainly an interesting story --- and Kemmerer Wy was a real old company town in those days. Makes one wonder what kind of reception he got from the company and company store, eh??

Cathy, so nice to hear from you. You just can't imagine the look on my mother's face when she talked about going to the Golden Rule. She went from looking her 85 years to the wonderment of a 5 years old. I never forgot that day or the look on her face.

Joan, I had heard stories about J. C. Penney, but didn't know much about the start of his business. Your mother's experience puts such a personal touch to that. I can just see her eyes light up, just to hear you tell of it!

Joan, this was such a treat to read! We shopped at Penney's when I was a child, though it wasn't within walking distance for us. Have you written down all of your mother's memories of the Golden Rule? I wonder if the modern J. C. Penney company would be interested in hearing about them.

Nancy, so glad that you enjoyed this little story of the my mother and the Golden Rule story. You know, for days before I wrote the story, I kept thinking that I needed to tell someone (J.C.Penny or someone)about this connection between mother's childhood memories and how important the Golden Rule was to her as a child. So, finally I blogged it, but even now I keep thinking that perhaps I will hear from the J.C. Penny store. Thank for the comments -- very much appreciated.

About Me

A child of the 30’s and 40’s, “Betty Crocker” mom of the 50’s and 60’s, college student of the 70’s, businesswoman of the 80’ and 90’s, and finally retired to my home in the hills south of Ashland, Oregon, to garden, contemplate, and write.